What is ethnic cleansing and what’s the definition? From the Rohingya Muslims in Burma to the Bosnian war

Ethnic cleansing has been used to describe the actions of the bloodiest and most ruthless regimes and movements in recent history

By Neal Baker

13th December 2017, 12:31 pm

Updated: 19th December 2017, 12:31 pm

ETHNIC cleansing is a phrase first popularised as recently as the early 1990s — but it has become synonymous with some of the worst crimes against humanity.

From the Nazi's treatment of the Jews to the brutality meted out by other ultra-nationalist groups, it has been attached to the actions of several bloody regimes and movements — but what exactly does it mean?

Reuters

Rohingya Muslims fleeing persecution and violence in Mayanmar, which Prime Minister Theresa May said 'looks like ethnic cleansing'

What is ethnic cleansing and how is it defined?

Ethnic cleansing first became widely used in the 1990s to describe the actions of the Bosnian Serbs against Muslims during the Bosnian War.

It was specifically used to describe the Srebrenica massacre of March 1995 in which more than 8,000 Muslim men and boys were murdered by the Bosnian Serb Army of Republika Srpska.

The Nazi's industrial scale murder of the Jewish people across Europe has also retrospectively been described as ethnic cleansing.

By definition, ethnic cleansing can be synonymous with genocide except it does not necessarily entail mass murder and it has a particular focus on ethnicity and religion. Genocide, unlike ethnic cleansing, is also a specific charge under international law.

Ethnic cleansing is the mass expulsion or killing of a particular ethic or religious group in an area by another, be it the apparatus of the state like an army or police or a private militia group.

How has the term been used recently?

In November 2017, Prime Minister Theresa May said the ongoing refugee crisis in Myanmar "looks like ethnic cleansing".